Mystery at Ascot Estates

'Mystery at Ascot Estates,' Part 1

'Mystery at Ascot Estates,' Part 2

'Mystery at Ascot Estates,' Part 3

'Mystery at Ascot Estates,' Part 4

Dateline
July 26, 2013

'Mystery at Ascot Estates,' Part 5

Dateline
July 26, 2013

This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>>>police had announced the
double murder
in gracious ascot estates was a robbery gone very wrong. the unlikely intruder, the parkers' family friend
bryan
capnerhurst.
brett
parker told the investigators that his friend
bryan
had shot his wife
tammy
in a botched robbery attempt then
brett
in fear for his own life killed his friend. it looked like self-defense. but sheriff
leon
lott knew they couldn't close the case without thoroughly checking out
brett
's story.

>>there's three people there. two of them are dead so we have to rely on him to explain to us what happened. so we were listening to everything that he was saying. and then we'd go back and check it.

>>investigators went over
brett
's account starting with the moment
bryan
entered the house. before long, something unusual came to their attention.
brett
told police he was sitting on the downstairs toilet when he heard the shots ring out. but one of the female
crime scene
investigators noted this, the
toilet seat
was up.

>>our lieutenant is a female and she made mention of that, that particularly bothered her.

>>of course, it takes a woman to notice that.

>>right.

>>as they pored over
crime scene
photos another small but important detail jumped out,
bryan
's
gym bag
with ammunition and an empty magazine clip visible.

>>those items were found on top of the clothing and other items in the bag.

>>unusual because of what they noticed on the
home security
video that captured
bryan
arriving at the house.

>>if you looked at the video, the way
bryan
nonchalantly through the bag over his shoulder you would feel like those items would have gone to the lowest point of the end of the bag so it was like they were almost placed there.

>>there was more that didn't seem to quite add up. investigators took a hard look at the
time line
of the crime as
brett
described it. that
home security
video showed
bryan
arriving at
brett
's home at
12:31 p.m
.
brett
called 911 to report having shot
bryan
at
12:42
.

>>what happened? who shot your wife?

>>a
friend of mine
,
bryan
.

>>police believe the confrontation should have only taken a couple minutes so why had
brett
taken nine more minutes to call. why with his wife shot inside
brett
came outside to make that call.

>>if it would have been me i would have been inside trying to hold my wife, administer cpr to my wife and he didn't appear to have any blood on him at all.

>>yeah, was that strange they didn't have blood on him?

>>it was.

>>investigators pick through every detail in
brett
's account and found that while he'd been up front about his illegal bookie business, he wasn't up front about everything.

>>we covered certain things for
brett
like had he been involved in adulteress affairs? he told us no. the first
24 hours
we found out that wasn't true and a series of text messages with a
young lady
of a sexual nature indicative of an affair.

>>and they started looking at the evidence versus what he had said. and over a period of time, it just kept getting more
red flags
coming up.

>>tammy
's
best friend
, angela
leon
didn't know anything about the investigation. but she had a gut feeling something wasn't right and called up the sheriff's department to say she thought
brett
was lying.

>>i reached out to them, wanted them to make sure there were people that had a different side of the story.

>>brett
continued to insist it was self-defense. but within a week of the shooting, he had gotten a lawyer, david fedor.

>>the sheriff had told us he thought it was a little odd that
brett
retained a
defense attorney
so quickly when he was saying he was the victim.

>>anybody in a situation like that that doesn't retain an attorney immediately needs psychiatric help.

>>his attorney said
brett
was no killer. he was just defending himself after
bryan
showed up to steal his money.

>>captain hurst went over there specifically to rob the people,
tammy
was there. he shot her first and we assumed he would shot
brett
and
brett
got the drop on him instead.

>>what motive could he have to shoot her?

>>the motive he would have to shoot her was getting the money out of the safe and have no witness.

>>why carry out a burglary when you know the wife is home?

>>your guess is as good as mine.

>>i think some people just find that hard to believe.

>>sure, they do. people find hard to believe that airplanes fly. but it happens.

>>brett
parker met directly with sheriff
leon
lieutenant ott. he even invited the sheriff to the house to show him the
crime scene
.

>>he wanted to walk me through the house to demonstrate what had happened and after that meeting we sat at his kitchen table and at that point was the first time i told him i just didn't believe him.

>>the sheriff was now convinced that
brett
was no victim. he was the mastermind of a cruel and highly unusual plot to kill his wife and frame a friend.

>>he'd gotten away with his gambling for so many years. what else is he going to get away with?

>>three months after the murders there was startling news.

>>the
richland county
sheriff's department says parker is lying.

>>brett
parker was charged with two murders.

>>why do you think it took so long?

>>because they didn't have a case is what i find.

>>as the case headed to trial, there were no witnesses. no video of the crime and little
forensic evidence
pointing to either
brett
or
bryan
as the real killer.

>>it was a high-profile case, two killings in a
small town
. they wanted to make the most of it.

>>coming up, the trial opens with a bombshell. not about him, but about her.